Richard F. Riley
Partner
Richard F. Riley, Jr. focuses his practice on tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations, taxation of insurance companies, employment and withholding taxes, and tax litigation at the administrative, trial, and appellate levels. He is a partner in the firm’s Taxation Practice.
Representative Experience
- Outside tax counsel to one of the nation’s largest tax-exempt social welfare organizations on tax, tax exemption, advocacy, and governance issues.
- Outside tax and corporate governance counsel to the leading U.S.-based international software industry trade association, including its for-profit and charitable affiliates.
- Outside tax and corporate governance counsel to a nationwide tax-exempt public broadcasting organization, relating to fundraising and endowment activities, bylaws and internal governance guidelines, and general tax and advocacy matters.
- Advising many nonprofit organizations on creation and operation of for-profit affiliates, including affiliated investment funds with outside investors.
- Representing property and casualty insurers in defending their loss reserve deductions against IRS challenge, and addressing other complex P&C insurance company tax issues.
- Served as taxpayer’s counsel in Acuity Insurance v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, a leading tax precedent on insurance loss reserves.
- Tax and transactional counsel to a nationwide multi-campus nonprofit university, including its conversion from for-profit to nonprofit status.
- Representing the credit union system and individual state-chartered credit unions on the unrelated business tax consequences of insurance and financial products, negotiating with the IRS on unrelated business tax issues, and representing the industry in successful test-case lawsuits in federal court.
- Continuing work for a wide variety of educational organizations, religious organizations, private foundations, social welfare organizations, trade associations, and other tax-exempt, and nonprofit organizations in all facets of their operations.
Awards and Recognition
- Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell’s peer review rating system
Affiliations
- American Bar Association Section of Taxation
- Federal Bar Association Tax Section
- District of Columbia Bar Tax Section
- Fellow of the American Bar Foundation
- Active in the Exempt Organizations Committee of the ABA Section of Taxation and serves as co-chair of the Political & Lobbying Organizations Subcommittee
- A founding member of the J. Edgar Murdock American Inn of Court at the United States Tax Court
- Served on the board of editorial advisors of the monthly professional journal The Tax Adviser
Community Involvement
- Serves on the board of The Riley Foundation, a grant-making charitable foundation in Mississippi
- Serves on the board of Acuity Insurance, a multistate multiline property & casualty insurance company based in Wisconsin
- Serves on the board of Legal Counsel for the Elderly, a legal services organization supporting the low-income elder population of Washington, D.C.
Unrelated Business Income Tax
Foley Attorneys Author Tax Chapter Update to Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, Fifth Edition
Foley & Lardner LLP Partners Richard Riley and Eric Pearson co-authored the 2022 update to the Tax chapter of Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, Fifth Edition, published through a joint venture by Thomson Reuters and the ABA Litigation Section.
Property & Casualty Insurance Premium Refunds During COVID-19
An unexpected issue faced by property & casualty insurers during the COVID 19 pandemic has been premium refunds to policyholders – especially on personal auto policies.
Employer Sponsored Foundation for Coronavirus Disaster Relief and Implications for Tax Planning
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, businesses may consider having their affiliated company foundations take the lead on providing assistance to affected employees and their families.
IRS Rules that PAC Sponsored by a For-Profit Subsidiary of a 501(c)(3) Health Care System Parent Violates Prohibition on Political Campaign Intervention
In a January 31, 2020 private letter ruling (PLR 202005020), the IRS ruled that where a Parent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization was providing administrative services to a for-profit Subsidiary, the Subsidiary’s creation and operation of a political action committee (PAC) would violate the prohibition on political campaign intervention by Section 501(c)(3) organizations.
Riley Discusses Effects of Government Shutdown on Tax Issues
Partner Richard Riley was quoted in a Bloomberg Tax article, “No IRS Help on Global Tax Issues as Shutdown Keeps Officials Home,” about furloughed IRS employees not being able to attend the ABA tax section’s midyear meeting in New Orleans.